Is AIDS Denialism a Cult?

The Cult of HIV Denialism

By Jeanne Bergman, Ph.D.

Published at the Body.com Spring 2010

More is known about HIV than about any other virus. Less than three decades ago, doctors were perplexed by the appearance of Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in young gay men. Since then, scientists and doctors, spurred by the activism of people with AIDS, discovered the virus now called HIV and proved that it causes AIDS by crippling the immune system until the body can no longer resist life-threatening infections.

Scientists around the world have isolated HIV, photographed it with electron microscopes, and sequenced the genomes of its different subtypes. There are now highly accurate tests for HIV antibodies and the virus itself, and increasingly effective and tolerable antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for its treatment. Science is a gradual process, and there is still much that is not fully understood about HIV, but the evidence that HIV exists, is transmissible by blood, semen, and vaginal fluids -- and that it causes AIDS -- is vast and thorough.

The Denialists and Their Cult

The Commonalities of Global Warming Denialism and AIDS Denialism

Monckton's response to John Abraham is magnificently bonkers

Monckton fails to provide a convincing refutation of Abraham's criticisms but does throw a great deal of dust into the air.

From George Monbiot's Blog

Say what you like about Viscount Monckton, he never fails to entertain.His response to the devastating critique of his claims about climate change by the physicist John Abraham is magnificently bonkers.

To give you a flavour of Monckton's reasoning, here are some examples of what he cites as evidence of Abraham acting out of malice:

• Abraham pointed out that Monckton "has not written a single peer-reviewed science paper on any topic";

• Abraham stated that Lord Monckton "presented a lot of data with no citations or no explanation";

• He pointed out that "if you don't tell us where it's from we can't assess the data";

• He explained that a graph displayed by Lord Monckton was "almost off by 100%".

These are all straight statements of fact. It is impossible to see how they could be construed as malicious, unless you regard all criticism of your views and credentials as illegitimate.

Henry Bauer Returns Home to Vienna: For the International AIDS Conference?

I decided to sit out of the International AIDS Conference this year. I have only gone to a few of these, mostly because they have become less important for researchers. The last good one was Vancouver 1996 when combination therapies were generating excitement for a possible cure. Personally, I find the International AIDS Conference to be a bit of a circus. So guess what? The circus has some new clowns. Check out the AIDS Denialism side show in Vienna. Have a Schnitzel with Peter, Claus, and Henry (they speak the native tongue). Watch for the AIDS Deniers protesting AIDS science. Have fun. But please, do not feed the AIDS Deniers...they are dangerous and they are attracted to food.
UPDATE: More Russian coverage of Denialism as science. Amazingly, they have never heard of Peter Duesberg before.


AIDS - Knowledge and Dogma
Conditions for the Emergence and Decline of Scientific Theories
Congress, July 16/17 2010, Vienna, Austria


Final Program
Simultaneous translation into English and German is provided for all
presentations.

Lunch and coffee breaks are provided for all participants.

Download the actual Congress Program as PDF
Friday, July 16th
09:00   Registration
09:30 - 10:15   Uta Santos-König
"Immaculate conception or maculate perception - A view of science
through Ludwik Fleck’s spectacles"

“There is no proof that HIV causes AIDS”: AIDS denialism beliefs among people living with HIV/AIDS

Below is an excerpt from a new study published by Seth C. Kalichman, Lisa Eaton, & Chauncey Cherry in Journal of Behavioral Medicine


Click here to obtain the full article or write me for a reprint.

Introduction

Fringe and extremist groups that challenge well-established historical and scientific facts have become increasingly visible, particularly on the Internet. Holocaust Deniers, for example, claim that Nazi Germany did not systematically kill 6 million Jews and Global Warming Deniers believe that climatology is a flawed science with no proof of greenhouse gases changing the atmosphere. Among the most vocal anti-science denial movements is AIDS Denialism, an outgrowth of the radical views of University of California biologist Peter Duesberg. Duesberg claims that HIV and all other retroviruses are harmless and that AIDS is actually caused by illicit drug abuse, poverty, and antiretroviral medications. Until recently,  AIDS scientists have largely ignored denialists, stating that they are no longer relevant and are not a threat to HIV/AIDS treatment and care. 

            Unfortunately, ignoring AIDS denialists has not addressed the problem and AIDS denialism is flourishing as a result. AIDS denialism promotes the idea that HIV is harmless and cannot cause any disease, most certainly not AIDS. Some AIDS denialists claim that there is no proof that HIV exists at all. HIV antibody tests are said to be invalid because anyone can test HIV positive, people who do test positive do not develop AIDS, and there are people who develop AIDS who have never tested HIV positive. AIDS denialism rejects HIV treatments as toxic poisons that do more harm than good. The central tenant of AIDS denialism is that there is an ongoing debate among legitimate scientists regarding whether HIV even exists and if it does exist whether HIV causes AIDS. AIDS denialism intersects with AIDS conspiracy theories, and may impede HIV prevention and treatment.

One Less Outlet for AIDS Deniers: Thank You Elsevier

New editor for Medical Hypotheses
 Posted by Jef Akst at TheScientist.com

Biomedical scientist Mehar Manku will take over as editor-in-chief at Elsevier's embattled, previously non-peer-reviewed journalMedical Hypotheses, the publisher announced today (June 24).

In his new role, Manku, a member of the editorial board since 2004, vows to maintain the journal's unusual aim of distributing novel, radical ideas in medicine and related biomedical sciences while employing a more traditional peer review process than the journal saw under its previous editor,Bruce Charlton,whose contract was terminated after he refused to implement such a system.

"First, we will retain the ethos, heritage and unique characteristics of the journal as they were proposed at inception," Manku said in a statement. "Second, we will engage a medically qualified editorial board to get members more involved in the review system to help ensure radical new ideas and speculations in medicine are given open-minded consideration while ensuring scientific merit."

He may have a long road ahead of him -- last month, editorial board member William Bainsspoke withThe Scientistand said most of the board planned to resign in response to Elsevier's changes to the journal, which found itself in hot water after Charlton chose to publish an article by notorious AIDS denialist Peter Duesburg of the University of California, Berkeley. Duesburg was subsequently the subject of a university investigation launched last November to determine whether he had violated the university's code of conduct by submitting the article toMedical Hypotheses, but was cleared of the charges earlier this week.

Manku is executive editor and editor-in-chief of a leading journal in the lipid field,Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, and part-time chief scientist at Amarin Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on cardiovascular disease.



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RELATED STORY

The Shame of Academia: No Price for Reckless Public Health Mischief

Berkeley Drops Probe of Duesberg After Finding 'Insufficient Evidence'

by Martin Enserink on June 21, 2010 2:07 PM 

The paper that cost the editor of Medical Hypotheses his job will have no further consequences for its main author, molecular virologist Peter Duesberg of the University of California (UC), Berkeley. The university has ended its misconduct investigation after concluding that Duesberg was within his rights when he wrote that there is no evidence of a deadly AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

Duesberg's paper, published online on 19 July 2009, triggered a storm of protests from AIDS scientists and activists. Elsevier, the publisher ofMedical Hypotheses, has retracted the article and has terminated the contract of the journal's editor, Bruce Charlton of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, who declined to introduce a peer review system at the 35-year-old journal.

Truth Revealed: The Gulf Coast Oil Spill Conspiracy

Oil Spill = Illuminati's Covert War on America

May 24, 2010  by Henry Makow, Ph.D. 

We think of war in terms of missiles and tanks and bombs. But a far superior form of war is to disguise attacks as false flag terrorism like 9-11, natural disaster like Katrina or an accident like the April 20 BP oil spill.

This way the victim is not aware of his attacker, and cannot take countermeasures.

The parallels between the oil spill and Katrina are uncanny. In both cases, the American Gulf coast was attacked, and the Presidential response was deemed tardy and ineffective. In the case of Katrina, the levees were blown up 12 hours after the hurricane had passed.

The "tell" is the failure of the Obama Administration to declare a State of Emergency and take immediate action to stop the gusher. It is hard to believe that an Administration facing a national election in six months would sit on its hands while oil poured onto America's Gulf coast. Last week, Obama was announcing a commission to study the causes while  failing to address the blow-out itself.

A Sincere Message to Seth Kalichman and like minded people

Posted at QA, Questioning AIDS Forum

by positivenegative, June 3, 2010

It's a crying shame you hold your position in the face of too much honest and sincere conversation where people, whether you agree or not, are trying to fight for their lives. You're deliberate and arrogant viewpoint is an insult to people who just want answers. Most importantly you insult yourself.

When I first got diagnosed I read your book because I did not want to deny anything. I wanted all the information I could possible have and I sincerely took your words to heart but in the final equation you're judgmental and accusatory attitude makes me lose any respect I might have had for you.

RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE on Denialism Denial

Are one person's iconoclastic views another person's denialism?

By Orac  May 26, 2010

I've had a lot of fun thus far this week expressing more than a bit of schadenfreude over Andrew Wakefield's being ignominiously stripped of his medical license in the U.K. by the General Medical Council, not to mention pointing out the quackfest that is Autism One, I feel the need for a brief break from the anti-vaccine craziness. This is as good a time as any to take care of some leftover business from last week that I had planned on writing about but gotten distracted by all the deliciously bad news for the anti-vaccine movement. Besides, what will be going on in Grant Park in Chicago this afternoon fits into this topic perfectly, because the anti-vaccine movement is but one "flavor" of this particular problem.

I'm referring to denialism, of course.

A view of Peter Duesberg from up the road: Stanford Gets It!

Strangely Charming: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
 Stanford Daily  By Jack Cackler

Mark Twain, the 100th anniversary of whose death transpired just last month, was never known to be soft-spoken about his opinions. He popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics,” caustically opining the view that numbers can be used to dissemble truth. While Twain’s classic snarkiness may elicit frustrated delight from Stats 60 students everywhere, his story is only half formed. As statistics can be a tool for ill-intentioned academics to perpetuate falsehoods, a society well educated in statistics is the best defense against this kind of intellectual trickery. Today we’ll look at a recent case in which statistics were not used honestly, and how to guard against them in the future.

The Cult of Denialism

 Unreasonable doubt: Climate change, AIDS, GM foods – all have their detractors. But when does disbelief become dogma? 

By  Keith Kahn-Harris, New Humanist Magazine 

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be living in a world in which the methodical, rational, scientific accretion of knowledge would lead us down a path to a better world. That was the dream of Enlightenment, the bedrock of modernity.

But much has happened to challenge this dream. One doesn’t have to agree with Theodor Adorno or Zygmunt Bauman that the Holocaust was the apotheosis of an inhuman Enlightenment rationality to recognise that scientifically grounded bureaucracy can be used to control and slaughter millions. One doesn’t have to be a radical environmentalist to recognise that, from Thalidomide to DDT, the fruits of scientific progress can lead to horrendous unintended consequences. One doesn’t have to be a Richard Dawkins to observe the continued flourishing of religious fundamentalism and conclude that enlightenment has failed to take hold in many parts of the world.

Living in Denial

This week's New Scientist Magazine is dedicated to denialism. Several excellent articles. Well worth a look. Deborah MacKenzie's article is especially worth reading.

Living in denial: Why sensible people reject the truth

By Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist, May 12, 2010

HEARD the latest? The swine flu pandemic was a hoax: scientists, governments and the World Health Organization cooked it up in a vast conspiracy so that vaccine companies could make money.

Never mind that the flu fulfilled every scientific condition for a pandemic, thatthousands died, or that declaring a pandemic didn't provide huge scope for profiteering. A group of obscure European politicians concocted this conspiracy theory, and it is now doing the rounds even in educated circles.

This depressing tale is the latest incarnation of denialism, the systematic rejection of a body of science in favour of make-believe. There's a lot of it about, attacking evolution, global warming, tobacco research, HIV, vaccines - and now, it seems, flu. But why does it happen? What motivates people to retreat from the real world into denial?